Friday, November 13, 2015

Hillary's no leader

Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley attacked Hillary Clinton on Thursday for using the term illegal immigrants instead of undocumented
at a campaign event, and implied the front-runner for the Democratic
nomination has been disingenuous in her support for immigration reform.

I happen to agree with him.

If you're running for president, I really think the term is "undocumented immigrant."

I'm not going to be outraged when Republicans use "illegal immigrants" because I expect it from them. But when a Democrat running for the party's presidential nomination uses it?

Thursday, November 12, 2015. Chaos and violence continue, the UN
Security Council hears about Iraq, John Kerry spins in public, the
Peshmerga continue to try to take Sinjar, Nouri al-Maliki talks to the
press, and much more.

Wednesday, the US Defense Dept offered:

Airstrikes in Iraq

Bomber, fighter, attack and
remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 airstrikes in Iraq, coordinated
with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Huwayjah, four strikes
struck an ISIL headquarters, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL logistical
facility, and an ISIL security headquarters.

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike
struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL buildings,
three ISIL weapons caches, and three ISIL fighting positions.

And the airstrikes were apparently so successful or so much fun that DoD announced today:Strikes in IraqBomber, fighter, attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted
40 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s
government:-- Near Albu Hayat, one strike, struck a large ISIL tactical
unit and destroyed an ISIL command-and-control node and two ISIL weapons
caches.-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck two separate ISIL staging areas.-- Near Mosul, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and wounded an ISIL fighter.-- Near Ramadi, six strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical
units and destroyed five ISIL buildings, an ISIL tactical vehicle, an
ISIL excavator, two other ISIL vehicles, two ISIL bomb clusters, and
denied ISIL access to terrain.-- Near Sinjar, 24 strikes struck nine separate ISIL tactical
units, nine ISIL staging areas, and destroyed 27 fighting positions, an
ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL bomb, six ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL
vehicle-borne bombs, two ISIL command and control nodes, an ISIL bunker,
two ISIL caches, four ISIL staging areas, and suppressed an ISIL heavy
machine gun.

-- Near Tal Afar, six strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit,
three ISIL staging areas, an ISIL bridge, and destroyed an ISIL vehicle,
an ISIL observation post, and two ISIL bunkers.

And the airstrikes will continue tomorrow.

They've gone on daily since August . . .

of last year.

They've accomplished nothing of value and only a fool would think that they might.

At this late date, only a professional idiot would still hold out hope of something coming from these bombings.

Yesterday the United Nations Security Council heard about Iraq. The UN notes:

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi faces “immense challenges” to
his efforts to bring reconciliation and broaden the political process in
his strife-torn nation, confronting obstacles from all sides, the top
United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council
today.“Since taking office (a year ago), the Prime Minister has been
struggling to exercise his authority while his opponents grow bolder,” Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Ján Kubiš told the Council,
presenting the latest UN report on the country. “Meanwhile, the scope
and impact of the reforms have not met public expectations.”“Despite hopes that he would be able to move national reconciliation
forward and bring the broader Sunni community into the political
process, the Prime Minister's efforts have been obstructed by elements
within all Iraqi components, the main reasons being lack of trust and
vested interests.”

We'll note this from Jan Kubis' testimony:

Special Representative Jan Kubis: In July, when the country was
experiencing record high temperatures and
repeated electricity cuts, popular demonstrations erupted to protest the
poor delivery
of services in Baghdad and the southern governorates. By early
August, the
demonstrations had grown in strength and numbers. The protests have
recurred each
Friday and are led by civil society groups and young people, who are
demanding
better services, better governance and an end to government
corruption and
mismanagement. The protesters' demands for reform gained momentum when,
on
7
August, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi to take
decisive action against corruption, improve the Government’s
performance, reduce
public sector expenditure and publicly name officials who are impeding
reforms. On 9 August, Prime Minister
al-Abadi announced a reform plan to address the
economic and social needs of Iraq, counter corruption and strengthen
democratic
institutions. The plan included downsizing the Government to
reduce public
expenditure and improve State performance, abolishing
the posts of Vice-President
and deputy prime ministers as well as a number of senior
officials in various
ministries, reducing their salaries, protecting services, and
judicial reform. The
reform plan was unanimously endorsed by the Council of Ministers just
hours after
the Prime Minister's announcement. On 11 August, the Council of
Representatives
unanimously approved Prime Minister al-Abadi's first package of reforms
and its
own reform package to complement the Prime Minister's measures. The
Council of
Representatives also stated that the reforms should be in
conformity with the
Constitution of Iraq and other laws. Following the endorsement by the
Council of Representatives of the reform
packages, Prime Minister al-Abadi began reducing the number of
Government
personnel. On 16 August, he ordered the immediate abolishment of his
deputies' posts, the reduction of the Council of Ministers from 34 to 22
members and the
dissolution of the Ministries of Human Rights, Women's Affairs, and
Municipalities
and Public Works. He also ordered the merging of Ministries
with similar
specialized functions: Science and Technology with Higher Education and
Scientific
Research; Environment with Health; Municipalities and Public Works with
Housing;
and Tourism and Antiquities with Culture. On 20 August, the
Prime Minister
announced a 90 percent reduction in the number of personnel
dedicated to
providing protection for Government officials. On 9 September, he
announced the
dismissal of 123 senior officials from their posts.
They were to either retire or have
their administrative status adjusted. The Prime Minister also took
steps to formalize the abolition of the posts of
the Vice-
Presidents. On 20 August, he ceased the payment of their
financial
entitlements
and on 15 September, the Council of Ministers submitted to the Council
of Representatives a draft law to aboli
sh their posts. All three Vice
-
Presidents
publicly stated that they considered the abolition of their posts
unconstitutional.
8
.
The Government took steps t
o initiate inquiries into allegations of political
corruption. On 15 August, the Presidency of the Council of
Representatives referred
to outstanding cases of corruption against staff in the Ministries
of Defence and
Commerce concerning the award of arms contracts. The day before, the
Chairman of
the Integrity Commission, Hassan al-Yassiri, had announced that
travel bans had
been instituted against those under investigation for corruption.

So there's real movement on the political front? That's the story?

Nope.

Special Representative Jan Kubis: Most of the priority legislation that would aid national reconciliation,
however, remained pending in Parliament. Votes on the national guard law were
postponed on 30 August and again on 7 September owing to disagreements between
parliamentary blocs over its provisions. Additionally, no progress was made towards
the enactment of a general amnesty law since
its first reading on 5 July. Meanwhile,
the National Reconciliation Committee of the Council of Representatives separated
the Justice and Accountability and Banning of the Baath Party Act into two bills on
25 July. While the Council of Representatives concluded, on 30 July, the first
reading of the draft law on the banning of the Baath Party, dissolved entities and
parties, and the activities of racism, terrorism and
takfir
(charge of unbelief), no
voting took place on legislation that would revise de-baathification measures. On
15
September, the Council of Ministers decided to withdraw and review all draft
laws submitted to the Council of Representatives by the previous Government. This
amounted to some 80 draft bills, including the draft anti-terrorism law
of 2005.

Before US President Barack Obama became enthralled with airstrikes, he
was fond of pointing out that the only answer to Iraq's various crises
was a "political solution." June 19, 2014, he was proud of declaring
that publicly.

Yet when he began the current wave/latest wave of the Iraq War (August
2014, less than two months later), he was obsessed with bombings and
completely forgot about the need for a political solution.

Bombing has passed for a 'plan.'

Who thinks Barack's 'plan' is working at this point?

Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki has waded into
the discussion and called out the US. He says there's no way the
Islamic State could survive these bombings and fears some nations (he
means the US in that "some") want to see the Islamic State succeed.

Barack looks like an idiot because he's set himself up to be.

In June 2014, he was full of talk about how this would require a
political solution -- Iraq's crises -- and how this or that (military
actions) would not fix the problems.

And the bombings weren't intended to.

Until Barack lost any interest in a political solution.

That was somewhere around the time the US State Dept began acting as an
auxiliary to the US Defense Dept and you had Brett McGurk acting like
Military Wanna Be McJerk and focusing on everything but the political
issues at stake in Iraq (which can mainly be boiled down to a lack of
inclusion).

Barack's 'plan' is a failure and he's got no one to blame but himself.

He needs to realize that as Nouri continues to serve him up to the press.

Nouri al-Maliki, who stepped down as the head of the Iraqi government
last year and remains a vice-president, believes that Iraq was targeted
by a “regional conspiracy” and is at risk of breaking up. He also said
inviting Russia to target Islamic State targets in Iraq could play a
positive part in the debacle.Describing the effort of the
international coalition led by the US to cripple ISIS fighters in Iraq,
Maliki said it was “inefficient”.“It's unbelievable and
unacceptable that more than 60 nations comprising this coalition that
have the most modern aircraft and weapons at their disposal have been
conducting their campaign in Iraq for 14 months and IS still remains in
the country,” he told RT's Arabic-language sister-channel Rusiya Al-Yaum.

Today, US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke at the so-called US Institute of Peace.

There, he pretended to be concerned and fair. On Iraq, which he briefly
noted, he zoomed in on the Islamic State and declared that their "
fighters have been abducting, raping, and auctioning off women and
girls, even teaching that the abuse of underage, non-Muslim girls is not
only acceptable but a form of prayer, an expression of the will of God.
That is how perverse this has become. And they have urged followers and
affiliates from across the globe to murder their neighbors, to commit
homicides and suicide at the same time."

At Wednesday's UN Security Council briefing on Iraq, Jan Kubis also noted the actions of the Islamic State.

Unlike John Kerry, Kubis didn't leave it at just the Islamic State.

Special Representative Jan Kubis: UNAMI also continued to receive reports alleging that pro-Government armed
groups and militias had perpetrated human rights violations. Members of the Sunni
Arab
community were targeted in particular, primarily in Diyala. On 12 August,
approximately 50 members of the Sunni Arab community were abducted in Baquba
District, Diyala Governorate; at least 17 of the bodies were found in the Diyala
River later the same day. Many of the abductions reportedly took place at or near
checkpoints manned by Iraqi security forces and associated forces. On 1 September,
militia members allegedly abducted at least 40 persons of Sunni Arab origin near
Balad District, Salah al
-
Din. The
fate and whereabouts of the abductees are
unknown. Reports were also received of persons in Peshmerga uniform destroying
homes and structures in Sunni Arab-inhabited areas in Jalawla, Diyala Governorate,
on or around 16 August.

Kurdish Peshmerga troops, backed by 36 American airstrikes, moved to take the town of Sinjar. They seized part of a highway used by ISIS to ferry supplies from Raqqa, its stronghold in Syria, to Mosul, an Iraqi city of more than 1 million people.The
battle to reclaim Sinjar began in the air. U.S. airstrikes pounded
suspected ISIS targets throughout the day. Thick smoke hung over the
city, and ISIS fighters lit banks of tires to try and block the bombers'
visibility.

On this topic, David Sim (IBT) announces, "Kurdish fighters, backed by US-led air strikes, have captured several
villages in an attempt to retake the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic
State (Isis) militants who overran it more than a year ago. Thousands of
Yazidis living in Sinjar were killed and enslaved by IS, causing the
flight of tens of thousands of people. This focused international
attention on the Islamist group's violent campaign to impose its radical
ideology, and prompted the US to launch air strikes against the
militants."

Of course, the announcement's a little late in coming since they've been
attempting to retake Sinjar since before August 2014 -- if anyone
bothers to remember that.

Sri Lanka's The Nation newspaper explains, "The town sits on an important highway Islamic State uses to ferry
supplies from Raqqa, Syria to Mosul in northern Iraq. Islamic State
seized the city last summer in a major offensive, widening its
self-described caliphate to about an hour’s drive from the Kurdish
capital, Erbil." AFP adds, "Kurdish forces and the U.S. military said the number of Islamic State
fighters in the town had increased to nearly 600 after reinforcements
arrived in the run-up to the offensive, which has been expected for
weeks but delayed by weather and friction between various Kurdish and
Yazidi forces in Sinjar."

To promote the offensive, Kurdish officials have put their press
program on overdrive. They quietly arranged to have a flock of
international journalists on hand for the offensive’s start, bringing
them to Sinjar in convoys on Wednesday. Even a hashtag — #FreeSinjar —
was a preplanned part of the operation. A KRG official pushed
journalists to include it in their tweets; he requested to speak to at
least one organization’s social media editor directly.The public
relations push may also be aimed in part at internecine politics. The
PKK, the Turkish insurgent group classified as a terrorist group by the
U.S. government, did much to stem the losses in Sinjar in August 2014
and halt the ISIS advance. PKK fighters have remained in the area, doing
some of the most grueling house-to-house fighting to help clear ISIS
from the town. But their presence has also rankled KRG leaders who
suspect the group of wanting to carve out its own influence. The Sinjar
offensive was reportedly delayed in part due to bickering between the peshmerga and PKK over who would be credited for the win.